Hospitals to install electronic display boards to update doctors

The guidelines said the hospitals will update doctors on the available stock of medicines and consumables every week. The health institutions will install electronic display boards in OPD and indoor patient department (IPD) about available free medicines, consumables and laboratory services.

Doctors have to prescribe generic medicines only without mentioning their brand. The hospitals will audit the prescriptions periodically. The health institutions have to put the inventory of their medicines online for better centralised monitoring by the Odisha State Medical Corporation Limited, the nodal agency for procurement of government supply medicines.

To ensure optimum use of technicians and nurses, the CDMOs have to distribute them according to the workload and undertake training programmes. For better patient access to diagnostic services, the hospitals have been asked to create proper signage and place laboratories on the ground floor as far as practical. To provide seamless service to expecting mothers, the government has asked hospitals to equip nurses in-charge of labour rooms to prepare kits for normal delivery and caesarean deliveries, keeping in mind patient load of one week in advance.

A section of doctors describe the government's move as impractical. "Though the government is articulating on the availability of free medicines, the reality is otherwise. Several medicines are invariably out of stock. Moreover, many patients demand outside medicines because they doubt the quality generic drugs that is provided free," said a doctor in Capital Hospital here.

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